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It’s been a few weeks now since Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS was released. I’ve been playing the game almost nonstop ever since the midnight release earlier in the month. It may have been longer if you want to include the time I spent on the demo. For the most part, I’ve been enjoying the hell out of it.

The game is not without its flaws, however. It seems to lag quite a bit at times during online play. For someone who plays “For Glory” pretty often, lag can be extremely frustrating. There have been times where lag was so horrible I just forfeit. The lag issue may or may not be due to my internet connection though. Aside from that I can’t say I have too many other complaints. I could be like everyone else and complain about the roster, but I really don’t have any problems with it. Yeah, there are clone characters, but at least some differences can be found. The play styles and move sets vary. So I really don’t have much of an argument there.

Whether you play for fun or for competition Smash Bros. for the 3DS is pretty fun. It’s a bit odd to play a party fighter on a portable console, but it makes for an interesting and maybe even new experience for those who haven’t been playing Smash on the 3DS.

Lastly, I’m happy to announce that despite some serious game play, my thumb pad is still in-tact.

I was sort of wishing for this trio to all wear that same pompadour that the farthest guy sports on his head, but then it actually would have downplayed how ridiculous they actually look. Because pompadours are indicators for revolutions in a convoluted society drawn of conspiracies and demons influenced by jelly-infused doughnuts.

And, oh lordy. Kirito-KUN really got to show off his MANliness while carefully examining HIS outward appearance. I knew it was coming, but it seems they also asked Kirito’s seiyuu to sound more feminine. We just might have another comrade for the Fukuyama Jun and Kamiya Hiroshi, two seiyuu who have the ability to voice female characters. Even if it’s actually not that hard to hear the straining of male voices trying to hit the female voice registers and tonality, you’ve gotta applaud these guys. Welcome to the circle, Matsuoka Yoshitsugu. It’s hilarious to witness Kirito resort to imitating female verbal mannerisms and gestures to play right into the mechanics of being a trap. The benefits of hanging around lots of women, I guess. Almost felt like he was trying to combine Silica’s movements with Asuna’s dialogue.

I really hope they play off of the trap version of Kirito. It’ll be the first obstacle we get to watch him overcome during the airtime of the show, instead of being force fed another story that he had a father/mother/cousin that dolled him up pretty at some point because reasons. Anything, please. Kirito needs some hardship.

Seriously. 3 episodes for Shinon’s introduction, and 1 for Kirito. Come on A-1 Pictures, get a little creative. I hope the next one shows us Kirito needing training wheels for a bit. If it were me, I would have spent more time on showing Kirito awkwardly handling a gun. That was the first hint of him developing a brand new skill instead of having one convenient plus, one after another. In fact, spend a few episodes with him trying to deal with it. We know he’s going to off-hand the gun, give him a D&D-esque penalty. Have him fighting while needing to pull off that one clincher shot that fails. It’s important to have him develop character while we’re actually watching him. Stop with the “Oh, right. I have skills.” routine.

I thought Tatsuya was going to use the powers of creepiness and rub the guy’s face. Which probably would have made the rest of the series turn into a show about Ichijo’s elevated obsession with Tatsuya. Makes me wonder if that short-lived vibe was intentional, because there’s plenty of ways to reconfigure and redirect this scene to be less.. fabulous. But we all know everyone enjoys such shows. Just remember Star Driver. Or don’t. Because sometimes people can’t handle the kiraboshi.

I’m behind on the Mahouka blogging lately, with which I’ve started to wonder why it’s ended up being the show for me to regularly write about. Perhaps, sometimes I just want to write about a show that’s a bit more flawed, flashy, and fabulous, than a show that seems to hit more nails into the planks of stability and quality. Consider it a contrast to shows that take a serious effort towards storytelling, pacing, and very controlled swells of emotions. Mahouka is like that strange corner shop with that weird tasting soda pop and two arcade machine with dilapidated joysticks, iffy button response, and a Start Game button who’s label text is ghost of its original print, pigments lost to millions of hands slamming their anger into repeating the hallway of death that was 90s arcade goodness.

I’m waxing nostalgia while writing about a show that’s in the future. Yep. I’m late one episode, so I’ll probably end up combining the next two.

For a while, I thought this season was going to contain three trap anime (e.g. Love Stage!!, Himegoto, and Sword Art Online S2). Then I remembered that Love Stage!!’s trap phase is already over, since it covered the (or uncovered, depending on you-might-know-what) commercial plot bit.

I have a déjà vu feeling that I’ve done this screencap before, despite having zero entries on Arpeggio of Blue Steel. Dat aft. Kirishima will never leave my heart, nor my hard drives.

I’m slightly late to the party again. This was announced a month ago. But hell yes, to more Arpeggio of Blue Steel. Slated for 2015 are two movies — one being a recap, and the other being brand new material. I highly enjoyed the show. A surprising amount of the show’s action was about tactics, positioning, and timing. I’m also deeply saddened that there isn’t that much Kirishima fan art. There’s plenty of the KanColle version. In a way, this post is a warm up to the upcoming Kantai Collection anime. I’m assuming there’s going to be a flood of shippingjokes once KanColle airs this year. へへへー.

I don’t know what happened, but I’ve been binging (gerund of binge, not bing.com) on FFxiv lately. Patch 2.3 made me quite happy, despite Naul. Fucking Naul. Bastard needs to be a fate with scaling HP for the amount of people trying to camp him for allied seals. It’s honestly a bit short sighted by the devs. They wanted smaller bands of people to hunt these guys down, not entire armies to whoop Hunt targets in less than a minute.

So, yeah. Even though there’s plenty of anime this summer of 2014 to whet your appetite, and none of your apatite, your Free! has arrived with 100% Kyoto Animation, which includes Choice Select Cuts of Man Candy and Faggotry to balance out all of the angst, lolis, action, and moé. However, as we all look upon the upcoming anime season with glee, the above screencap tells the future. There will be times where we can either bask in the glory as Gou does, facepalm with Makoto does, smile and enjoy as a carefree Nagisa, or simply sigh and bow our heads in disappointment as Rei does.

I’ve already been able to do all four. No, I don’t mean the characters. That would just be wrong. Although, a Gou is fine. But only her.

I didn’t mention Haruka because he’s already naked and ready to swim. If you’re like that already for the upcoming season, well, have at it. Most likely you’ll end up like Haruka. Naked, and already going to watch every show this season. Hats off to you.

And take off your hat, before you swim. Unless it’s a swimming hat.

Are there swimming hats?

Oh, and if you’re at none of the previously mentioned states of readiness, you’re probably just as surprised as these people that new anime is already airing. Ready your butts. The hurt is a comin’.

I have a feeling that I’m going to miss out on watching anime this season too, because I’ve been addicted to the game Banished. I love me a good city builder. (Alternate link.)